If manure nutrients can be appropriately land applied within the local area, then the cost of transportation and application is usually less than the cost of installing new treatment technologies on the farm. For more information see Costs of Manure Application and Transport .
If you must transport manure long distances and/or have a market for the product that results from a particular treatment technology (such as compost, or biogas from a digester) then it may be feasible to consider these technologies. Cost reductions in the system that may result from treating manure also need to be considered. A technology that reduces the volume or reduces moisture of manure will reduce the number of loads required to transport the manure off the facility. This can offset some or all of the cost of building a composting facility.
Other factors such as the odor reduction from some technologies (solids separation or anaerobic digesters) may have considerable benefits even if the cost of production is increased.
For more information, see the webcast presentation by Reg Clause, Iowa State University and Erik Lichtenberg, University of Maryland on "Value Added Processing of Manure" .
